


Cheer

by TenSpencerRiedPlease



Series: Pride Fics [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Camping, Cheerleading Uniforms, Crossdressing, Genderqueer Character, Genderqueer Tony Stark, I Don't Even Know, M/M, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Steve and Tony are both 17, but not because one is over 18 and one is under, i tagged this as underaged because both characters are 17, to be clear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-01 22:33:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19186669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenSpencerRiedPlease/pseuds/TenSpencerRiedPlease
Summary: Yeah, he shouldn’t have agreed to this but Steve was all ‘but camping is fun’ so he figured what the fuck, might as well, right? Wrong, because there are bugs and leaves and plants and all the things he hates. You know, nature and all that shit.So he figures he'll get his kicks in other ways and judging from the look on Steve's face he's going to have fun. “Where’d you even get that?” Steve asks, nodding to his outfit.Tony grins, “wouldn’t you like to know,” he says.





	Cheer

**Author's Note:**

> Uh, so this was a thing that came mostly out of nowhere. I like Tony in skirts, and teens exploring their sexuality is pretty normal so I stuck it together.
> 
> And, as I'm sure you noticed, this is the first in a series I've labeled 'Pride Fics'- to be clear not all of the stories will relate directly to coming out or explicit discussions of gender/ sexuality. I wanted to create a couple of stories where the characters fell into categories that aren't necessarily the fic popular L G (and sometimes B) categories of the LGBT+ acronym. And I chose this story as a part of that because being a more 'fringe' identity plays a role, but isn't the main plot. Like real life, queerness plays a role but isn't the entire story. Anyway!
> 
> My inclusion of this fic in particular stars genderqueer Tony because non binary people 100% don't get enough love and I like the idea of genderqueer Tony so. Here he is. (I may do one with genderqueer Bucky at some point too). Part of the reason I chose the age I did is because I feel like younger people have a better grasp on their nebulous genders than older people (lack of exposure for older crowds, can't identify as something you don't know exists), and because this is exploratory in a way younger people generally are (on account of older people usually having themselves somewhat figured out).
> 
> Anyway, I hope you like it! *Also, to be clear Steve and Tony are both 17, I tagged this as underage because they're you know. Underage. But not because one character is an adult and one is a teen.

Yeah, he shouldn’t have agreed to this but Steve was all ‘but camping is _fun_ ’ so he figured what the fuck, might as well, right? Wrong, because there are bugs and leaves and plants and all the things he hates. You know, nature and all that shit. “Hey,” someone says and Tony spares a glance to some dipshit to his left. He’s already decided he hates pretty much everyone here but he hates this guy more than normal. “What’s with the outfit?” he asks and Tony rolls his eyes.

He’s been told his eighties meets hippie dipped in black is a weird look but he likes the flow-y skirts and Steve’s vegan ass can eat it, leather is great. “Unlike some people I prefer style,” he says, giving the ill-fitting jeans and T-shirt the guy is wearing a disdainful look.

“Not what I’d call it,” he mumbles and Tony snorts.

“Buddy you have _no_ room to judge,” Tony tells him in his best condescending tone. He knows it works too because Asshole looks down and frowns like he can’t see something wrong with his clothes. Tony makes sure he gives him a pitying look for it when he looks back up at him too.

“Fuck off, Rumlow,” Steve says, appearing from behind Tony with some sticks. Tony wrinkles his nose because he’s been reminded he’s in nature and he _misses_ his lab. Dummy is entertaining and there’s heating that isn’t Steve’s body heat. Also there are no tents and no stupid teenagers that decided to tag along with friends of friends and okay, _yeah_ Tony’s a teenager too but he’s also in university so he feels he doesn’t count.

Steve drops his sticks beside what Tony assumes will at some point be a fire and perches himself on the log Tony is grudgingly perched on. He’d prefer _literally_ anything else to sit on but no, he’s stuck on a log. “Its not that bad,” Steve murmurs in his ear like he genuinely thinks that’s true.

“Name one thing worse than this,” Tony asks, turning to face Steve. Normally he sort of forgets to think when he’s this close to Steve because who wouldn’t, Steve’s gorgeous. But at the moment he’s more preoccupied with his hatred of all things camping. If he sees a single fucking wasp he’s leaving.

“Rumlow’s pants,” Steve points out and yeah okay, he’s got a point there. Steve smiles, knowing he’s got Tony there. He leans in and kisses Tony softly, “want to make the playlist?” he asks and hell _yes_.

“I’m not looking to listen to whatever bullshit some jock thinks is good so yeah,” Tony says, standing. “You gunna come with me?” he asks innocently enough but Steve gets his drift anyway.

“Always,” he tells Tony, standing up and grabbing his hand. Tony’s pretty sure Rumlow mumbles ‘gross’ behind them so he flips him off for good measure.

*

Turns out the music being _exactly_ to his tastes so isn’t enough to make hanging out with annoying drunk high schoolers fun but that doesn’t mean Tony doesn’t have his own plans. Rhodey frowns on screen, tilting his head like he’s going to get a better view that way when Tony would have to change the way his phone is held to get that result. “What are you wearing?” he asks.

He laughs, grinning. “You might want to stay out of it, honeybear. Also, high schoolers fucking suck,” he mumbles.

Rhodey snorts, “they’re your age, why are you complaining?” he asks like Tony acts his age. He doesn’t, never really has. Downsides of growing up a genius and in the public eye though he’s allowed himself to fade a bit from public view the last few years. His thing is science over celebrity but he’ll make a comeback when he feels like it.

“Uh, probably because I was like nine when I was in high school,” he points out. “Steve’s great, but everyone else? Hot mess. And you _know_ how much of a mess you have to be for me to consider you a hot mess,” he says meaningfully.

Rhodey winces because yeah, he knows and Tony’s standard for hot mess is pretty high. “I’m sorry man,” he says and Tony sighs.

“Yeah. Also its like these idiots have never seen a dude in a skirt before. Do they not watch Ru Pual’s Drag Race? I thought literally everyone watched that,” he mumbles. Technically he doesn’t really cross dress so much as adopt a more androgynous look that he thinks better reflects his feelings on… _things_ but whatever. Point is having a dong doesn’t mean you can’t rock a skirt and he thinks he looks better in most in them. Not to mention male genital structure means skirts make more sense than pants but whatever.

That earns him a sympathetic look and yeah, Rhodey doesn’t really _get_ it but he also recognizes he doesn’t need to not to be a dick. And one time he admitted that he’d adopt Tony’s fashion if he though he could pull it off but he was pretty wasted and Tony’s pretty sure he forgot he said that. Rhodey could never pull off Tony’s look though so its probably best that he doesn’t try.

“Look on the bright side,” Rhodey says. “Its not Florida.”

Tony wrinkles his nose. “You say that like that’s an actual improvement,” he says.

“I mean it kind of is. So you’re stuck with some small minded children, you _could_ be stuck in Florida, the STI infected dick of America,” he says, shuddering.

“Actually I think the STI infected dick of America might be a guy named Brock Rumlow,” Tony says, nose wrinkled again.

Rhodey rolls his eyes, “I already know all I need to from his name. This is like the Archibald incident last year,” he says as the door to the tent unzips.

“Archibald incident?” Steve asks, obviously not paying much attention as he tumbles in looking annoyed.

“Yeah. Dumb ass white guy making stupid comments so I jokingly said ‘shut up, Archibald’ except the dude’s name was _actually_ Archibald,” Rhodey says. The look on their faces when it happened was priceless too. Archibald because he was freaked out that Rhodey knew his name when he’d never mentioned it and Rhodey because his attempt at picking out a Standard Rich White Guy Name ended up being a correct guess.

Steve snorts, shaking his head with a small smile on his face. “That’s-” his words die in his mouth as he looks up and notices what Tony’s wearing, “hot,” he finishes and Rhodey frowns, clearly confused.

“Outfit, not Archibald. Gotta go, honey bee. Call you later,” Tony tells him, blowing him a kiss before he ends the video call.

“Where’d you even _get_ that?” Steve asks, nodding to his outfit as Tony tosses his phone aside.

Tony grins, “wouldn’t you like to know,” he says. He stole it; actually, not that it was hard. But Steve mentioned he had a thing for cheerleading uniforms and Tony’s always aimed to please. Also, Steve’s school’s color scheme isn’t shit so why not? He can deal with red, black, and white and the uniform looks adorable on him to boot. Works well with his eyeliner and couldn’t-give-a-fuck attitude.

Steve licks his lips, looking him over and Tony props himself into a sitting position on his knees. “You don’t happen to have heels, do you?” he asks and oh, come _on_.

“No on account of we’re camping and I thought this looked fine with these,” he says, gesturing to the black ankle length boots on his feet. They’re flat, which is why he chose them, and still wholly inappropriate for camping but they’re the closest he has to appropriate shoes for this kind of thing.

For a moment Steve considers them, then dismisses them in favor of crawling over to Tony and settling a hand on his hip, eyes still on the uniform. He bites his lip and runs a hand up Tony’s side and back down again, toying with the edge of the skirt. “Not gunna lie, I’ve imagined this like a million times,” he tells Tony.

Tony laughs, “really? Never took myself for a cheerleader type,” he says as Steve pushes him back so he’s lying down. He shifts his legs out from underneath himself as Steve crawls between them. Steve grabs one of his hands and threads their fingers together and pins Tony’s arm above his head. His other hand sits on Tony’s hip as he leans forward and kisses him.

“Mm, no you’re not,” Steve agrees as he kisses down Tony’s neck. “You dressed up because you like the attention I give you but you don’t let me touch you just to tease me. You like pushing me to the edge, making me beg for it,” Steve murmurs.

 _Shit_ , okay Tony can work with that. “So that’s what you’ve been fantasizing about, hmm?” he asks, sliding his free hand down Steve’s back and over his ass, squeezing it a little.

Steve shifts his hips into Tony’s and they both moan, “ _hell_ yes,” Steve tells him. “You’re always in skirts anyway, not that hard to imagine you in what I like.” Tony grins and shifts, rolling them both over- a bit difficult in the limited tent space but he manages just fine. He pins Steve’s hand over his head and settles in his lap, straddling him. Steve squirms a little; lips parted some as he looks Tony over. He leans in and kisses Steve, smiling as Steve leans into it enthusiastically, his free hand tangling in Tony’s hair to pull at it a little before it roams down his back and over his ass.

“Lets see what we can do about that fantasy of yours, hmm?” Tony murmurs, grabbing Steve’s wrist and removing his hand from his ass. Steve makes a disappointed noise but he can suck it up, Tony likes the idea of making Steve beg for it. Looks like he’s half way there already. He leans forward, placing Steve’s other hand above his head as he kisses him. “You’re gunna keep your hands up here,” Tony tells him as he nips at Steve’s bottom lip, “while I ride you.”

Steve lets out a soft noise of discontent, “but I want to touch you,” he whines and Tony rolls his eyes.

“Don’t whine at me, baby, or I’ll just leave you here like this,” he says, reaching down and cupping Steve through his jeans. He leans forward as he runs his hand up Steve’s length, “and I can feel how much you want this too,” he murmurs, blinking innocently.

Poor Steve looks half gone and defeated, “okay, okay,” he mumbles and Tony grins.

“Thought so,” he says as he pulls away, earning an upset noise out of Steve. “Don’t be greedy baby, I’ll take care of you,” Tony tells him. Not like he doesn’t always- he’s gotten good at reading a room and Steve’s not shy once he’s interested. Steve clasps his hands together above his head, giving Tony something of a desperate look and that’s cute. He reaches out and traces a finger along Steve’s jawline. Tony’s got no idea why his classmates hadn’t shown any interest in him before, and it took Tony time to convince Steve of his beauty, but he managed. He’s always liked a challenge and frankly doing everything he can to convince Steve he’s gorgeous really wasn’t much of a hardship to him.

He leans down and kisses Steve slowly, not letting Steve take the desperate control he wants to just to tease him more. Steve makes a soft noise into the kiss, trying his best to hurry things along without hands but Tony pulls away a little every time he tries. “ _Tony_ ,” Steve whines at him. Tony elects to ignore him and kisses his way back down Steve’s neck, sucking at the skin there and Steve wiggles underneath him. He loves when Steve’s like this, desperate and a little needy. Makes everything better for Tony, him being like this. Tony’s always liked attention, _loves_ being in the center of it assuming that’s what he wants in that moment, and during sex he likes to know he’s doing his job well. And Steve? Tony got him out of that absurdly prudish habit he had of being way too quite during sex.

He slips his hands under Steve’s shirt, pushing it up as he shimmies down Steve’s body, kissing down his chest and stomach as he goes. When he gets to Steve’s belt line he pulls away, grinning as Steve makes a frustrated noise. “Take off your shirt,” Tony tells him, hands skating down his sides. Steve pulls it off and tosses it aside, not paying much attention as it hits the side of the tent. Tony’s pretty sure he’s going to be embarrassed about the implications of that tomorrow to everyone _else_ lingering around but for now Steve isn’t really concerned about it. “It’s been awhile,” he says as Steve settles his hands back above his head. Its sweet that Tony didn’t even have to tell him what to do.

“Too long,” Steve agrees. Yeah, Tony had exams the month before Steve- university schedule- and then Steve had his exams so they’ve mostly met up for short periods of time before one or the other had to study for something.

Tony hums, “probably gunna need a little prep,” he says, laughing when Steve sits up immediately, apparently happy to offer his services. Tony presses him back down into the mess of clothing and sleeping bags. “I don’t need your assistance,” he tells Steve, who looks simultaneously turned on and disappointed. There’s a combo Tony’s never seen before. Steve settles into the ground, replacing his hands over his head and Tony thinks he can get used to that. He should try stuff like this more often if Steve’s willing to be so receptive.

He wiggles out of the space between Steve’s legs, ignoring his disappointed noise of protest, and crawls over to his bag, rifling through it for a few moments before he finds what he needs and crawls back. He does a quick glance around and yeah alright, it’s a bit of a tight squeeze for space but he’ll manage. “Here,” he says, throwing a condom at Steve and laughing when it lands on his forehead. He makes a surprised noise and pulls the packet off his head, shaking his head.

“Really, Tony?” he asks, amused.

“S’not my fault that’s where it landed,” he says innocently. “Hold onto that a minute, hmm?” He leans in and kisses Steve softly, catching his wrist when he reaches out to him. “No cheating,” he murmurs against Steve’s lips, “and back up a little,” he adds. Steve shimmies back a little as Tony turns around, making the best of the domed space as he carefully arranges himself with his ass in the air. If not for Steve sucking in a breath he’d feel kind of ridiculous in this position but this is for Steve’s benefit anyway.

He grabs the lube, cursing himself out for not at least managing a quickie with Steve at least a couple times in the last few weeks because then this wouldn’t be so much of a problem but _no_. Exams. Still, he grabs the lube and manages to get some onto his fingers, rubbing them together to warm it a little before he reaches back. Steve lets out another gasp and a small moan as Tony cirlcles his hole before pressing a finger in a little.

“Tony, can I-” he starts but Tony cuts him off.

“Nope,” he says. Steve makes a displeased noise and Tony thinks its funny that he’s frustrated with his own fantasy. He presses a finger all the way in and moans a little. Behind him, Steve shifts listlessly as Tony starts to move his finger in and out of himself.

“Tony,” Steve all but moans out and Tony’s pretty sure he doesn’t even know what he’s asking for, not really, and that makes this all the better. He carefully presses another finger in, shifting to get a better angle and moaning as he presses in a little deeper.

“Take off your pants,” he tells Steve, who wastes no time following his instructions. Tony mostly ignores the noises of Steve struggling out of his jeans as he fingers himself open more, focused on the sensation. _Shit_ , he forgot how good this can be and with Steve behind him making all these small little noises of arousal- yeah, that’s the good stuff. “Put that condom on,” Tony tells him, “because I don’t have much more patience.”

Steve’s breath hitches and Tony hears Steve open the condom package. “Jesus fucking Christ,” Steve says, words tumbling together. “You should see yourself like this, skirt ridden up around your hips, fingering yourself open like that. On display- for _me_. I don’t know if I have the self control to last much longer,” he says, babbling.

“Better last long enough to get me off,” Tony tells him, “so think of something unpleasant.”

“Shush, you know I’ll take care of you,” Steve says and right yeah, he’s not much of a selfish lover.

“Still wanna ride you so you best have enough self control that I can,” Tony tells him and Steve whimpers.

“If you keep talking like that I think I’ll be fucked,” he mumbles. Tony pulls his hand away from his ass and looks around his body at Steve. His cheeks are flushed and he’s got his hand around the base of his cock like that’ll help much.

Tony grins, “you’re gunna be fucked anyway. Lie back,” Tony tells him. He goes to turn around but Steve speaks up before he gets far.

“Wait, can you ride me facing that way- I, uh-” words fail him for a minute as his cheeks turn more red.

“It’s a better angle if you want to watch me fuck you in the skirt,” Tony guesses and given the redness level on Steve’s face he’s right. He shakes his head, smiling because Steve is nothing if not predictable. Its one of the things Tony both loves and hates about him. “Ready?” he asks Steve and he laughs.

“I’ve _been_ ready over here pretty much since the moment I saw you in that. Come here,” he says, reaching out to Tony like he’s trying to play it off as unconscious but Tony damn well knows he’s testing his luck. He bats Steve’s hand away, “don’t test me now, Steve. Paws off until I tell you its okay,” he says. Steve makes a small noise of disappointment but doesn’t try again. “Good,” Tony tells him as he carefully crowds into Steve’s space, positioning himself over Steve’s lap. He sits down, artfully spreading the skirt around his hips as he grinds down on Steve’s dick.

Steve’s hips buck up on their own accord as he moans. “Can I-” he starts, lifting a hand and Tony shakes his head.

“Keep that where it is,” he tells Steve, shifting his hips a little and earning a sharp hiss of pleasure for his troubles. He grins because he likes it this way, Steve half lost in the sensations with him in control. Hm. Might be a thing he didn’t know he was into.

“ _Tony_ ,” Steve says, cheeks flushed and breathing heavily.

Tony looks over his shoulder at him innocently, “yeah, baby?” he asks.

“Tony, _please_ fuck me,” Steve says.

He examines his nails for a moment, painted a pristine black that he likes, “maybe I’ll tease you a little more. I kind of like seeing you like this,” he says and the noise Steve makes is _so_ worth his saying that.

“Tony. _Please_ get to it,” he tells him. “Really wanna fuck you in that skirt, looks _so_ goddamn good on you,” he says, eyes falling to the aforementioned garment. Okay, yeah, Tony’s got better self control than Steve at least in this department but even he’s got his limits so he props himself up and reaches for Steve. He carefully guides him in, taking his time to adjust to the stretch as he slowly sinks down. “Oh _Tony_ ,” Steve moans, “you feel _so_ damn good.”

“Yeah?” Tony asks, voice breathy as he shifts his hips a little, experimenting.

“Oh my _god_ , yeah,” Steve tells him. “Move baby, wanna feel- _oh-_ ” Steve’s words are cut off as Tony lifts himself up some and falls back down again. “Lean forward a little, want that skirt to sit a little higher- that’s it,” he murmurs as Tony sits forward some, balancing himself out before he starts riding Steve in earnest.

This, he’s good at and he knows it. He’s had enough practice and even so he took plenty of time figuring Steve out. He knows how to fuck him the way he likes, how to shift his hips just right to get him to moan the way he is now. “Shoulda worn this a long time ago,” Tony murmurs.

“If you had I probably would have failed something fucking you instead of studying,” Steve says and its such a ridiculous thing to say but its so _Steve_.

“Shoulda worn it when I had exams. I’ve never failed anything,” he says. Not true, he failed high school English several times because who gives a fuck what a metaphor is and that’s not an important subject anyway but MIT classes? Total breeze- there’s no way he’d fail classes in which he’s smarter than the people teaching them and yeah, he should have just brought the uniform over just to tease Steve over an extended period of time. “Coulda fulfilled that fantasy of yours a long time ago,” Tony says, “coulda made you wait the whole month for this,” he points out.

Steve lets out a desperate noise, “there’s no way I would have- _fuck_ , do that again- survived that long,” Steve tells him.

Tony’s pretty sure he wouldn’t either, not with Steve looking at him like that and not when this always feels great. “Mm, me either. Forgot how good you feel,” Tony tells him.

“ _God_ , me too Tony. Forgot that you always know the right way to, _oh_ , yeah- fuck me right. Move a little faster- like that, _fuck_ I’m close,” Steve tells him. “Can- can I touch you?” Steve asks, hand already half extended to Tony and yeah okay, Tony misses being touched and he _really_ wants Steve’s hands on him right now.

“Yeah baby, you can touch me,” he says.

He doesn’t expect Steve to reach out to his hips, gripping them tight and changing the pace immediately, moving Tony’s hips the way he wants them to move and oh holy _fuck_ that is a lot hotter than Tony expected it to be. “Fuck Steve, keep doing that,” Tony tells him as Steve shifts his hips up to match the pace he’s set. Steve’s grip tightens as his breathing and thrusts become a little more erratic.

“Tony,” Steve moans, “so good like this,” he murmurs. “So damn- _oh_ , shit, m’close. I… I’m gunna-” Steve pauses, biting his lip as be pulls Tony roughly down on him.

“Come on baby, you know you wanna cum. S’okay, want you to,” Tony tells him as Steve shifts his position to sit up, changing the angle that Tony’s sitting at and he moans as Steve reaches around, under the skirt, to jerk him off. His other hand remains on Tony’s hip, guiding his movements and its rough and sloppy but _fuck_ is it good.

“You with me, Tony?” Steve asks, voice harsh if his ear and yeah he is.

“Fuck Steve, yeah, _oh_ -” his words cut out as Steve hits the right spot and- “Steve I’m gunna cum, I-” Tony’s words drop as Steve moves his wrist just right and he reaches behind him, settling one hand on Steve’s hip and the other over the hand Steve has on his hip. “Fuck, Steve, I-” he stops talking as his pleasure becomes his priority and he moans, grinding himself down on Steve’s dick as he cums.

Behind him Steve presses his face into Tony’s shoulder but it doesn’t do a whole lot to muffle him. “Oh my _god_ , Tony,” he says, grip on Tony’s hip tight enough to bruise. Tony kind of hopes it does and that’s new too but whatever. He’ll deal with that later.

For a moment they remain like that, catching their breath before Steve speaks. “You’re gunna keep the uniform, right?” he asks and Tony rolls his eyes.

“I already altered it to fit me so yeah,” he says. Someone had to get rid of those stupid built in underwear.

“Thank _god_ ,” Steve murmurs and Tony laughs.

*

Tony fucking hates mornings and he _hates_ nature. Unfortunately he’s dealing with both of those things right now because he can’t fucking _sleep_ with all the bug noises and light in his hell hole camp site. He’s wandering around to keep himself entertained at least when he runs into Bucky of all people slipping a shirt on over his head and walking by with his eyes to the ground purposefully. Tony raises an eyebrow because he knows a walk of shame when he sees one- benefits of living near a college campus, but doesn’t ask. He is, however, surprised to find the most likely source of Bucky’s walk of shame not too far away because as far as he knew Bucky and Sam hate each other. Their long standing rivalry over Steve’s affections that they’re both losing to Tony without even realizing it kind of proves that but hey, the fuck does he know?

When Sam sees him he looks surprised probably on account of Tony being a known night person. Its not as if Sam’s never heard him complain about morning classes so he figures he’s earned the right to look surprised. “You look annoyed,” Sam says and Tony wrinkles his nose.

“Fuck camping and _fuck_ nature,” he says, crossing his arms over his chest.

Sam lets out a small laugh and shakes his head probably because, like Steve, he’s a _freak_ who likes mornings. They remain silent for a long moment, mostly enjoying each other’s company in silence or maybe that’s just Tony not wanting to talk without morning coffee because there _isn’t_ any fucking coffee in this hellscape. Or maybe Sam has reason to keep quiet, he doesn’t know, but it’s Sam who breaks the silence.

“Can I ask you kind of a weird question? You don’t need to answer it if you don’t want, god knows I get dumb questions about being black all the time and-” he probably would have continued but Tony knows pretty much exactly where its going and he also knows Sam isn’t a douche bag.

“Just ask, I’ll inform you if its offensive later,” he says. Worst come to worst Sam won’t _know_ his idiot question is offensive and best case scenario Sam asks something genuinely interesting. Which he doubts will happen but hey, maybe it will.

Sam sighs, considering for a moment before he must decide to go ahead with it. “Most people kind of define their sexuality through the scope of their gender, but I know you uh-” he stops, frowning as he finds a good way to explain his thoughts.

“But I have complicated feelings on that,” Tony says for him and Sam nods.

“Right, so like. How _do_ you categorize your sexuality?”

Tony huffs out a laugh because that’s more scientific than he thought it’d be but then Sam _does_ have a brain that seems to naturally fall into scientific inquiry. Tony suspects Sam dumbs himself down a lot to blend in when he shouldn’t. He knows Sam’s smarter than he lets on on account of he doesn’t seem to get lost in conversations Tony has when he talks science. Everyone else does but Sam asks questions.

“Pansexual doesn’t necessarily orient itself around a gender the way ‘gay’, ‘straight’, and sometimes ‘bi’ does. But I kind of prefer queer over that- its nebulous and ill defined, which is kind of how I feel about my gender and sexuality as a whole. Easier to chose a poorly defined label than a badly fitting one,” he says.

Sam considers it for a moment and nods, “makes sense.”

They lapse back into silence for a long few moments. “Can I ask a question?” Tony asks and Sam sighs, looking like he regrets this already.

“Please don’t ask some dumb shit,” he says.

Tony snorts and starts laughing, “what, do you think I’m going to ask an asshole question as payback? No, I was actually wondering if Bucky was walk of shaming out of _your_ tent,” he says.

Sam turns a little red in the cheeks, which is harder to see with his darker skin tone but Rhodey’s a blusher. Tony’s gotten good at detecting the blush under darker skin tones. “No,” Sam lies and Tony rolls his eyes.

“One, you’re a bad liar. Two, should I tell Steve you don’t actually hate each other because he’s worried,” he says.

Sam wrinkles his nose, “no, we hate each other. I don’t know what this is but its best described as frenemies with benefits.”

Tony throws his head back and starts laughing. “Oh my _god_ , only you two would end up in a relationship with a title as stupid as that. Good luck man, and ask him out. He’ll probably agree just to make fun of your date choice,” he says, patting Sam on the arm before walking away. Steve’s probably awake by now anyway so Tony should probably prove he’s alive before begging to go back to civilization and _beds_.

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing Tumblr](https://tenspencerriedplease.tumblr.com/)


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